British Courts Once Again Bow To Islam

From The Clarion Project.

UK Court Issues Gag Order Citing Muslim “Cultural Sensitivities”


A judge in England banned reporting of a case against two Muslim lawyers accused of perverting justice to accommodate the “cultural sensitivities” of the lawyers’ family who are originally from Pakistan.

The ban was lifted after the Daily Mail, a UK newspaper, appealed the restriction. The Mail reports that granting anonymity is “a privilege rarely bestowed on defendants in the justice system, which has operated on the principle of transparency for centuries.”

Lawyers for Asha Khan, a lawyer in training, and her brother Kashif, a criminal defense lawyer, argued that the Khans should be granted anonymity as their family would pass judgment on them if the case was publicized.

The Khans were accused of lying after their father, Mohammed Khan, who does not have a drivering license was caught on camera speeding. The lawyers were accused of concoting a scheme where a family worker would take the blame for Mohammed's crime. Kashif was eventually acquitted of the charges, while Asha was convicted.

At the trial, Asha Kahan’s lawyer Glenn Gatland also said, "Miss Khan is quite upset that if matters are reported she doesn't feel she would be able to give her evidence as freely as she would have done otherwise. That's her concern. Culturally, it's very difficult for them to say things in public. The evidence would be impacted on by the cultural background of Miss Khan."

Gatland argued that his client did not want to criticize her father in public, although, according to the Daily Mail, “she was quite happy to have her mother sit in the public gallery.”

The judge reversed his decision two days later after a legal challenge by the Daily Mail, saying, "People of all faiths or no faiths should be treated in precisely the same way."

The case is reminiscent of a previous case in the English justice system where special consideration was given to a gang of Muslim girls due to “cultural sensitivities.” In that case, a group of four, drunk Somali girls viciously attacked an English woman as she waited for a taxi with her boyfriend in the city center of Leicester.

llegedly screaming, “Kill the white slag,” three sisters and a cousin, aged 24 to 28, attacked 22-year old Rhea Page, a care worker, beating and kicking her all over her body and head and pulling out her hair. The victim, left motionless on the pavement, eventually left her job working with autistic people, because of flashbacks, panic attacks and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

Even though the attackers admitted to the crime, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, the presiding judge in the case gave each of the girls a suspended sentence reasoning that because they were Muslim, they were not used to being drunk. Islam forbids consuming alcoholic beverages.